Palo Alto Weekly

Sports - February 14, 2014

Sports Shorts

BUSY WEEKEND . . . There's no shortage of sporting events on the Stanford campus this weekend, beginning with the sixth-ranked Cardinal women's basketball team taking center stage with a Pac-12 Conference contest against No. 14 Arizona State at 7 p.m. Friday. In case there's a need to keep busy, one could start the day with the undefeated 14th-ranked Stanford softball team making its home debut Friday at 2:30 p.m. against Cal Poly as part of the Stanford Nike Invitational, which continues through Sunday. Perhaps you might be interested in watching the top-ranked Cardinal women's tennis team take on visiting Santa Clara at 3 p.m. or taking in Stanford's baseball opener against visiting Rice at 4:30 p.m. in the first of a three-game series at Sunken Diamond. The variety continues Saturday with the Peg Barnard Invitational, a two-day women's golf tournament played on the Stanford Golf Course. In addition to the women's swimming and diving meet between top-ranked California and No. 4 Stanford at Avery Aquatic Center at 10 a.m., there's a women's lacrosse game scheduled at 1 p.m., with Stanford hosting Ohio State. Still not satisfied? How about the eighth-ranked Stanford men's volleyball team hosting No. 4 BYU on Saturday night at 7 p.m.? Sunday features the Rice-Stanford baseball series finale at noon, Cardinal-Arizona women's basketball, also at noon, and the softball finale of the Stanford Nike Invitational with Stanford meeting Pacific at 12:15 p.m. The Cardinal women's basketball team will be looking to rebound from its first conference loss of the season when it takes on the Sun Devils, the Pac-12's second-place team who are also coming off a shocking loss. Stanford (11-1 in the Pac-12, 22-2 overall) dropped an 87-82 decision to host Washington on Sunday. The Cardinal shot 34.6 percent from the field, 22 percent from 3-point range. Senior Mikaela Ruef recorded career highs in points (16) and rebounds (22) while Chiney Ogwumike added her 18th double-double of the season with 23 points and 14 rebounds. Ruef's rebounding effort was the third-best in Stanford history, following Ogwumike's 24-rebound performance against Oregon last year and Nnemkadi Ogwumike's 23-rebound showing against the Ducks in 2010 . . . The Stanford softball team, meanwhile, concluded an impressive opening weekend Sunday at the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe (Ariz.) with a 10-1 victory over Seattle. The Cardinal (6-0) outscored opponents 60-6 and out-hit the opposition 69-17, with a team average of .413, with 25 extra-base hits, including eight home runs. The pitching staff of freshmen Madi Schreyer and Carley Hoover and junior Nyree White limited opponents to a .147 average. Schreyer (4-0) finished the weekend with 16 strikeouts and a 0.69 ERA in 13 innings pitched.